714 Market Street in Parkersburg Is Not in a Designated Opportunity Zone

On November 8, 2026, the Census Bureau geocoder returned one match for 714 Market Street, Parkersburg, West Virginia 26101. The matched address is 714 MARKET ST, PARKERSBURG, WV, 26101. The geocoder returned longitude -81.557591705703 and latitude 39.267218682037, on the address range from 708 to 798 Market Street. The Census Tracts layer names Census Tract 110, GEOID 54107011000, in Wood County, state 54, county 107. The benchmark was Public_AR_Current and the vintage was Current_Current. That GEOID is the tract this address check uses. The result is the Census Bureau’s address-range match, not a survey of the two city tax parcels at the property.

The tract is not designated. GEOID 54107011000 does not appear in the CDFI Fund final designations workbook, sheet final_oz2_designations. The workbook was downloaded again on November 8, 2026. Its SHA-256 is c04f6cdf0db717c21bb03aa46b655a5f016b3a7b0477e2ed8799ce8bfb4b5efd. The sheet has 6,576 data rows, and the Rural QOZ column marks 2,594 of them Rural. Treasury press release sb0682, dated November 5, 2026, says all 6,576 tracts were designated Qualified Opportunity Zones effective January 1, 2027, of which 2,594 are in rural areas. The same workbook has 52 West Virginia rows. For Wood County, West Virginia, it has two, and only two: 54107000701, QOZID R54107000701-27, Rural, and 54107000901, QOZID R54107000901-27, Rural. The state column is part of the check. Ohio and Wisconsin also have a Wood County on this workbook, and those rows are not Parkersburg’s.

Why a county announcement is not an address answer. Wood County, West Virginia, does have designated tracts. The tract the geocoder assigns to 714 Market Street is not one of them. A reader who stops at the county name, at ZIP code 26101, or at the words “downtown Parkersburg” gets a different question from the one the federal file answers. The two designated tract pages are 54107000701 and 54107000901. The state page is West Virginia Opportunity Zones. The map and the tract lookup read the same CDFI workbook. West Virginia’s 52 designated tracts are already reported in the November 5 statewide story. This article is the address check, not that list.

What the Wood County economic development office said. The governor’s November 5, 2026 release is the public record that names the building. Lindsey Piersol, executive director of the Wood County Economic Development Office, is quoted in full as follows: “Governor Morrisey’s Opportunity Zone designation unlocks extraordinary potential for Wood County. We have a monumental 30.9-acre, 2.7-million-square-foot industrial riverfront site with direct rail, river, and I-77/US-50 access ripe for modern logistics and manufacturing, alongside historic downtown assets like 714 Market Street and Campbell Plaza. This designation gives us the competitive edge to attract investment and catalyze our economy.”

That quotation praises Wood County’s designation. It then names three local assets: a riverfront industrial site, 714 Market Street, and Campbell Plaza. It gives acreage, square footage, and rail, river, and highway access for the industrial site. It does not give a census tract for any of them. It does not say that GEOID 54107011000 is designated. A mention of the building, inside a statement about the county, is not a designation of the building’s tract. Read it as a diligence rule. It is not an accusation that Piersol, the Wood County Economic Development Office, or the governor’s office stated a false tract fact. In the release, 714 Market Street appears only inside that quotation.

This article checks 714 Market Street and stops there. Campbell Plaza and the 30.9-acre riverfront site are not geocoded here. Nothing below assigns either place to 54107000701, to 54107000901, or to any other tract. The figures in the quotation are the economic development office’s description of a site. They are not a tract finding, a capital commitment, or a return.

What the city says about the building. The city’s page for the address is a development solicitation, and it does not mention Opportunity Zones. Checked on November 8, 2026, the City of Parkersburg featured-property page says: “The City of Parkersburg is seeking development proposals from qualified developers for the opportunity to redevelop a city-owned property (714 Market Street) in the heart of the Downtown Parkersburg Historic District. The site consists of two parcels (Tax Map 91, Parcels: 3 and 11).” The page says proposals will be accepted by the Development Department of the City of Parkersburg at One Government Square, P.O. Box 1627, Parkersburg, WV 26102. It describes a three-story building, including a basement, of about 70,602 square feet, with 47,168 square feet on the first and second floors and 23,434 square feet in the basement, and two freight elevators. It says the Urban Renewal Authority considers the site important for downtown redevelopment that could include housing with a retail or commercial first floor. Those are the city’s words about the property and about the proposals it is seeking. They do not say a developer has been selected, that money has been raised, or that a project will produce any particular result. The word opportunity on that page is the city’s word for the solicitation. The page does not call 714 Market Street a Qualified Opportunity Zone and does not name a census tract.

The 2018 list is a different list. The CDFI Fund spreadsheet updated December 14, 2018 says it reflects that round’s final Qualified Opportunity Zone designations. Its Wood County, West Virginia rows are 54107000701, with Tract Type Low-Income Community, and 54107011000, with Tract Type Non-LIC Contiguous. In that file, LIC means low-income community. Tract 54107000901 is not on the December 14, 2018 spreadsheet. The older spreadsheet and the workbook that takes effect January 1, 2027 answer different questions. A row on the 2018 spreadsheet does not add 54107011000 to the new designations. Tract 54107000701 is on both files. Tract 54107000901 is on the new workbook only, where it is marked Rural. Someone who remembers 714 Market Street from the older map still has to run the January 1, 2027 test. For this address, that test is no.

How to check the next address. Use the Census Bureau geocoder, copy the 11-digit GEOID from the current match, and compare it with the CDFI Fund workbook. Then look up the same GEOID with the tract lookup or on the map. A ZIP code, a city name, or a sentence in a state release does not make the address designated. For the Wood County tracts that are designated, start with 54107000701 and 54107000901. Both take effect January 1, 2027, and both are Rural on the CDFI workbook. This page does not give tax advice. The fact it supports is the address fact: the Census match for 714 Market Street is tract 54107011000, and that tract is not designated.